The following day, November 2, the Misaks take the offerings to church, to the sound of drums and pipes, to mark the Catholic feast of All Saints.

"Our Guambiano brothers are the ones who organise that. They make offerings of food and products from Mother Earth," said Father Imbachi, the local priest.

"The cultural traditions merge with the liturgical."

In a Catholic country, the Misaks have their own vision of the afterlife.

Of Colombia's indigenous peoples, the Misak people are among who have best preserved their cultural traditions, including a colorful ceremony of offerings to the dead observed in early November

Luis Robayo, AFP/File

"Our dead go to a place called 'cansre'. It is not heaven or hell. We don't know where they go," said Floro Tunubala, the local community governor.

"At new year, they come back for food, because a year for us is just a day for them."

Tunabala is standing to hold onto his position this All Saint's Day -- it is also the traditional date for elections in native communities.

If he is not re-elected, he will have to hand his wooden rod of office to a new leader in January.

In a cemetery, Olga Montano spends part of the morning of November 1 cleaning the tomb of her grandparents, Barbara and Jose.

"The deceased are with us. They visit us," she says, before leaving in the drizzle to vote at a community assembly in one of the hamlets around Silvia.

Women in blue woollen capes flock and men in loincloths flock to vote, on foot or in brightly-painted minibuses.

The Misak use mobile phones and have largely given up their traditional sandals for warmer shoes, but peacefully defend their ancient traditions through bilingual schools and universities teaching their native language.

"We take the best of western culture," said Rodrigo Tombe, 35, the town education and health counsellor. "And we preserve what is ours."